I made the jump from DirecTV to the TWC/S3 that you are considering. CableCARD install was a snap. The HD picture quality IMO is noticeably sharper than DirecTV.

Unless you are drawn to DirecTV by the NFL Sunday ticket or some other unique sports channel, you may find out that it wasn't the "satellites in the sky" that you thought you loved. It may have been TiVo. At least that was the case with me. I couldn't be happier with my decision.

There is a unique host-id assigned to each cable card slot on a Tivo S3. They will be different for each box.

If your cable company uses the host-id and the cable card number in their head-end setup, you would need to call them and tell them the new host-id associated with each cable card number.

Some cable companies seem to use the alphanumeric cable card identification stamped on the back of each cable card instead of the cable card number.

You might as well try to put the cards in the new box and see whether they will work first, before you call your cable company.

I inserted both cable cards and got no premium channels. So I called TW and gave them the Host ID for just CableCard 1 = Bottom slot and asked them to send a hit. They said it would take 1/2 hour to go through. When I test channels, I get a momentary look at my premium channel, then the screen goes back to the page that shows the Host ID.

Time Warner Austin turned off the QAM unencrypted version of Fox HD (1501) for me again. It's been off for two weeks again.

They did believe Fox was part of the basic cable package this time, so that's an improvement. The guy on the phone did try telling me the SD channel had the same shows. Me having to explain that I want to watch the shows in HD that I'm paying for didn't make me happy.

Hopefully the next service guy won't tell me that I need to use their DVR or cable box to get basic cable again. I still get every other HD channel on both my TV and the Tivo. I think I'll put the Tivo in a closet when they come over.

I could just get cable cards and not deal with all this, but I'm getting to the point where I don't want to give them any more money. I especially don't like the idea of spending money to fix something they should have working in the first place. Basic cable...

I've had DirecTV and Tivo for too many years to count, have a HR10-250 (HD) in one room, and a Series 2 Hughes (SD) in another. I'd like to have the entire house set-up for HD reception (including adding 2 new hook-ups).

1) Can I add a cable card into my existing HR10-250, or do I have to get a new DVR?

2) If I switch over to a new Series 3 HD-Tivo, can I transfer over my existing lifetime service?

I had Time Warner come to my apartment today to check the signal - they said it was a bit weak in the higher frequency, but still within range...

...and that the frequent dropouts may be caused by the fact that the installer didn't run the cables tightly/correctly from the wall to the TiVo. In fact, he ADDED a splice. So, today's guy recut the cable, removed the extra splice, put in better connecting barrels, and we'll see...

...also, there was a 15 year old splice junction halfway up my wall - he replaced that one too, we'll see if it helps!

I had Time Warner come to my apartment today to check the signal - they said it was a bit weak in the higher frequency, but still within range...

...and that the frequent dropouts may be caused by the fact that the installer didn't run the cables tightly/correctly from the wall to the TiVo. In fact, he ADDED a splice. So, a new cut in the cable, better connections, and a much shorter run, and we'll see...

...also, there was a 15 year old splice junction halfway up my wall - he replaced that one too, we'll see if it helps!

I'll report back in a few days.

-Ian

You may need a cable signal amplifier. Your cable company should be able to provide one, but I found one at Radio Shack for less than $10.

Time Warner Austin turned off the QAM unencrypted version of Fox HD (1501) for me again. It's been off for two weeks again.

Service guy came out and he asked for someone at the office to plug into a TV with an internal tuner and they came back in 30 minutes or so to say they found the problem and were working on fixing it. I think the local station wasn't broadcasting the QAM version or something along those lines. TW didn't think it was on their end.

I am extremely surprised I'm the only one using QAM channels in all of Austin. With all the internal tuners on HDTVs, computer capture cards, and Tivos I'm the only one to complain for a two week outage?! That's just weird!

I'm getting cable cards so I can at least have the same problems everyone else does and hopefully simplify life a bit. Plus I can get that first tier of HD again. I am missing HD ESPN and TNT a lot during basketball season. Now I'll just have the SDV problems and Cablecard installation problems. I asked the guy to bring several cards just in case.

Got my S3 activated today. The guy who came out said he didn't even know what a cable card was till they handed them to him to bring to the install. After calling his dispatch (he was a contractor) the girl on the other end sounded as baffled as he did as to how to proceed, I finally walked them both thru the setup and got both cards online in an hour or so, I can't believe the "techs" they are using are so ill informed.

I had asked that he bring a couple of extra cards in case the originals had problems, which he left with me in case I needed them.

You may need a cable signal amplifier. Your cable company should be able to provide one, but I found one at Radio Shack for less than $10.

The other night, I bought a RadioShack In Line Signal Amplifier - about $45, actually, it's powered.

However, I'm a bit afraid to hook it up, actually - don't want to zap anything. Anyone else have this thing? It's model number 15/1170.

TWC was out this morning, respliced and shortened my cable. The guy said that the signal was generally good, a bit weak at the higher frequencies but within limits... however, I'm still getting dropouts. Discovery HD this afternoon, recorded a progam on Bali - 3 dropouts in 4 minutes!!!

My experience: After running my new Tivo3 for 60 days without cablecards to make sure it ran ok, I ordered them from TWC in So. Cal. The cards were recognized but both cards are missing channels 37-80. I noticed this right away but the installers said I needed to do a reboot or guide setup again. I did both and it did not work still. Meanwhile they had left. I called TWC and they did a hit on both of them but it still does not work. They have an installer coming out again and bringing more cablecards.

I also called Tivo support and they told me that cablecard 2 has those channels and it is probably that card giving the problem. I also asked them about a message on the cards under Conditional Access. Auth: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY
Tivo support said it should say subscribed.

Has anyone else had this kind of similar experience with missing channels 37-80 and the solution?

TWC in Charlotte, NC. I have a S3 with 2 cablecards that's been working like a charm for months. Now suddenly (2 nights ago) BOTH cablecards can't acquire any channels. "Cold hits" from TWC and reboots have no effect.

Anyone got any ideas?

Welcome to the club. If it is any consolation, TW didn't single out S3 TiVo's for this mistake, they also took down all their HD set top boxes and SA 8300HD DVR's at the same time. I was told that the outage only impacted the southwest area of Charlotte.

Unfortunately, when the problem was resolved, only TiVo's didn't come back up automatically (global refresh). On the 4th day, I got a Customer Support (CS) person who forced a special refresh of CableCard 1 in my TiVo with CableCard 2 removed, but the same was not true for CableCard 2 when reinstalled and refreshed. By the way, CableCard 2 has never worked properly, stopping at channel 281 (see my other posts here)

When the technician came to my house, he had never even heard of a TiVo HD, let alone worked with one. I walked him through all the diagnostic screens, and discovered that the TW database had an incorrect server number for the second card, and once corrected the card came up in less than 15 minutes. At least this one good thing came of their Bo Bo!

Be sure to call CS and ask for a refund. I got 5 days (the time that the HD was out) credit on everything (Cable and Internet), but had to ask for a supervisor.

As a side note, I walked the tech through all the advantages of a TiVo over TW's DVR, and he called back to tell me that he had bought one, <VBG>

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Installer for two cable cards just left after spending an hour and a half trying to activate the cards for my new series3. He is the only TimeWarner tech to successfully activate a cable card for the Cypress-LaPalma-CostaMesa area, and had done several TiVos already. It turns out TW here has not been able to do cable card activations since their takeover from Comcast. This left Comcast in charge of the process. Comcast just closed down all the regional offices that do this and have now only one office in the Los Angeles area to do this. When the tech called them nobody in the entire office had any clue how to do an activation. Finally the Comcast folks gave up and told the tech they could not help him. In desperation the tech reached somebody at TW for advice on how to proceed and was told that starting today TW could activate the cable cards. He called the number they gave him and found nobody there had ever done an activation! All they had was some written instructions which turned out to also not work, just like those at the LA office. They fooled around for 20 minutes or so then told the tech they could not help him either. What a joke!!! The tech basically indicated that nobody at TW really cares about problems like this, and suggested I call back next week to see if they have figured out how to activate a cable card.

Our TW affiliate recently added Cinemax HD, A&E HD and MTV HD, but I was not getting them on my S3. After two calls with level 3 techs who could not figure out why, they sent someone out to the house who, of course, did not have much experience with cable cards.

After about an hour of going back and forth with the local office he reported that the office had concluded that the new channels must be switched digital (SDV) which cannot be received by cable cards. He did not say it with a lot of conviction, so I am kind of up in the air now. He is supposed to update me in the next few days, so we will see . . .

They are the first HD channels I have run into that on. The only others that TW has used SDV on locally have been the west coast sd mirrors of east coast channels--but only on sd. We get both east and west on all the HD channels (HBO, Showtime).

Our TW affiliate recently added Cinemax HD, A&E HD and MTV HD, but I was not getting them on my S3. After two calls with level 3 techs who could not figure out why, they sent someone out to the house who, of course, did not have much experience with cable cards.

After about an hour of going back and forth with the local office he reported that the office had concluded that the new channels must be switched digital (SDV) which cannot be received by cable cards. He did not say it with a lot of conviction, so I am kind of up in the air now. He is supposed to update me in the next few days, so we will see . . .

They are the first HD channels I have run into that on. The only others that TW has used SDV on locally have been the west coast sd mirrors of east coast channels--but only on sd. We get both east and west on all the HD channels (HBO, Showtime).

I hope this is not a trend.

When TW added MoJo I couldn't get it in my area on my S3. I could get it just fine on my STB on the small TV upstairs. I know someone in head end and he sent a hit to my card and bingo, there it was. Apparently when they add some of these stations they "forget" to hit cable card users. YMMV

So my suggestion is to simply call CS and ask them to send a hit simultaneously to both cards just like you were getting these channels for the first time. If that doesn't work then you will need to have somebody contact someone in head end.

I just added the esata external drive because I heard cinemax was going to run all the Star Wars movies in HD. Got the drive hooked up (very slick) and then called TW to add cinemax. The new channel shows up on my hd box in the bedroom, but not the big TV in the living room with the S3.

After a few go rounds with the TW folks, and being bumped up a service level or 2, guess what? Cinemax appears to be the only HD pay channel that is switched video. Just my luck! Ok, well then we cancel that add to my account. Grrrr.

Oh well, cinemax and HBO are related aren't they? Maybe hbo will do the same thing at some point.

Still like the idea of the external drive though. Going away on vacation soon and now I should not miss any of my shows while gone.

I will follow the suggestions and check with TW again to make sure it is not SDV.

The tech did make one odd comment, that he heard that a cable card set had received MTV HD for one day even though it was SDV, and then did not receive it after that. Of course the obvious explanation is that it was set up as standard video initially and then switched to SDV after that. The comment did get me thinking about exactly why cablecards can't get SDV. I know the cards lack the necessary two way communication capacity, but how difficult would that be to implement, really? There must be some back and forth already, or they would not be able to get any information back at TW on the card. I am sure there are a million reasons I am wrong, but . . .

I'm here in Santa Monica and I've about had it with Time Warner and their techs' knowledge of Cablecards.
The first tech, almost a month ago, wound up leaving without everything working. He said it took a while for all the channel lineups to download into the Cablecard. It never worked and I never got anything that was encrypted. I was even getting the lineup from the West LA head end - not Santa Monica like I had been with my Moxi only a couple monutes before I hooked up the S3.
The second didn't know much more about Cablecards and had only brought two of them. Neither worked and I was back to square one.
Next I called and asked for Sergio and several Cablecards to come out, and wound up with Willie, another kid who didn't know what he was doing and only had 3 Cablecards. I got fed up and made him call his supervisor, who said he would be there in an hour with more Cablecards to resolve the problem. He didn't show.
What do I have to do to get someone to come hook this up right?

I'm having the same problem. The latest TW tech that I had out swore that the cable card went in my TV, not in the Tivo box. I had to convince him that's where they really go. They didn't work anyhow. I've been without Tivo for almost a month now. The TW techs won't even call back now. About ready to switch to Dish Network and sell the S3 on eBay.

CableCard 2 has died. In CableCard menu where it should show Host ID, I get a message:

"There was a technical problem during the authorization of this device, Please contact retailer."

CableCard 1 works fine. Yesterday both cards worked fine.

Is this a Time Warner or TiVo problem?

Help !! CB

Time Warner of course. Just as I was reading your message, watching 60 Minutes time shifted, up popped a message re:authorizing cable card and contacing TW, I hit clear to dump the message and all seems to be ok. I think TW is sending hits out.